This invention relates to the processing of scallops, and more particularly relates to an apparatus for extracting the adductor muscle from scallops.
The preparation of scallops for human consumption involves shucking, the separation of the adductor muscle from the shells, and eviscerating, the separation of the adductor muscle from the viscera which clings to the periphery of the muscle. Although the viscera of scallops is usually considered to be edible, only the cylindrical adductor muscle is commonly sold for human consumption.
Apparatus for mechanically eviscerating scallops has been recently developed which has greatly diminished the problems encountered in mechanically eviscerating scallops. This apparatus is described in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,555 which is hereby incorporated by reference and comprises a plurality of counterrotating rollers which are arranged to form an inclined path that descends from the input end of the eviscerator. Each of the rollers has its axis aligned transversely of the path and is positioned so that the surface of each intermediately positioned roller forms a nip with the adjacent roller on its input side and a nip with the adjacent roller on its output side. Drive means oscillate the rollers so that the upper exposed portion of adjacent rollers are alternately rotated towards each other to pull viscera from the scallop muscles and through the nip of the rollers, and alternately rotated away from each other to permit the lower roller to advance the scallop down the inclined path. Cleaning means remove the viscera from the underside of the rollers.
This machine depends upon the rollers to perform the function of bringing the viscera to the nip of the rollers where the viscera can be pulled from the muscle. The size and spacing of the rollers determines the efficiency of the rollers in accomplishing this function of feeding the viscera to the nip of the rollers. The choice of roller size and spacing is to some extent a direct function of the diameter of the scallop muscle, although other factors such as muscle firmness also have an effect. Scallop muscles, for a single scallop species, vary in diameter due to such factors as seasonal spawning activity.
The problem of feeding viscera into the nips of the rollers is particularly serious when processing a variety of scallops known as sea or ocean scallops because these scallops can vary widely in diameter. A roller of a given diameter may efficiently feed scallops and attached viacera when the scallop muscle is a given diameter, and be very inefficient when processing scallop muscles of a significantly larger or smaller diameter.
Scallop muscles with attached viscera have been fed to roll eviscerators by an endless conveyor that drops the scallops onto the top portion of the bank of rollers. Such an arrangement tends to cause the scallops to bunch up and does not distribute the scallops uniformly across the length of the rollers. This uneven distribution lowers the efficiency of the eviscerator and makes it necessary to use more rollers than would be necessary if more uniform distribution of scallops could be attained.
Various attempts have been made to more efficiently present scallops having attached viscera to the nips of counterrotating roll eviscerators. These have included attempts by workers to manually distribute scallops across the top of the roller eviscerator and to manually push individual scallops into the nip of the rollers at the bottom of the eviscerator. Hand-manipulated, flexible members have also been used to push the scallops into the nip of the rollers. A means for feeding scallops into the nip of the rollers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,515, however, this device performs only a limited lateral spreading function and may tend to accelerate the passage of scallops down the bed of rollers.